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Persuasive Essay CAS 138T

Step into the shoes of the minority perspective. Now think have you ever looked around at your peers and thought: why dont the majority of the people here look like me? The lack of diversity is a common issue among many colleges and universities in the United States today because these institutions dont enforce what is known as positive discrimination. The affirmative action decree enforced on September 24, 1965 is considered the legal facet that encourages employers and school officials to provide minority representation in the work field as well as enrollment in colleges and universities (Brunner, Borgnia, Infoplease). Creating an equally diverse, tolerant, and prejudice free atmosphere within education is key to the affirmative action educational decree that I am encouraging be revamped. This essay will argue that the federal government needs to amend the current United States affirmative action decree by implementing quotas among numbers in colleges, and verifying that all underrepresented students get the chance to attend the predominately majority universities. I will support these motions by comprehensively outlining the problem with affirmative action, describing how I would revamp the current policy, and discussing the practicality of this happening. Considering I have an extensive amount of first-hand experience and viewpoints on this topic the goal is to persuade the Supreme Court officials along with university administrators to see things from the pro-diversity, minority perspective. Diversity deficiency is sadly still one of Americas leading issues, especially for the minority population. In my opinion whether it is at the job or in the schoolhouse, a fair distribution of races is never present. The main body of students never really questions why these

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Persuasive Essay CAS 138T under representations occur; they just go with it because they are so used to it. This calls for an immediate change. It is time for the official integration of people of all skin tones, religious backgrounds, social and economic class levels, sexual orientations, and national origins to be evenly incorporated into college admissions standards. Naysayers in relation to this issue question whether preference should be given in admissions, especially in top-tier state schools (which have a bad record with graduating minorities), based on race, gender or ethnic background (Jost, Kennith, CQ Researcher Online). The graphs below depict the disadvantage minority students already have upon entering college because of the school system they were put

in and the economic backgrounds they come from. The two graphs below exemplify these points.

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Persuasive Essay CAS 138T

(Courtesies of: Jost, Kennith, CQ Researcher Online)

The people who have an issue with affirmative action believe that this policy provides an affordable ticket to the good life that minorities didnt earn (Curry, George, Credoreference). This in turn causes the other non-minority qualified applicants to be rejected from the school because of lack of space. The school diversity percentage problem can be handled in such a way that an even number of all qualified applicants of different races are correspondingly accepted. Although the idea of quotas isnt allowed, thanks to the University of California v. Bakke case, activist groups at the University of California have found a way to increase minority enrollments without violating that specific regulation (Liptak, Adam The New York Times). Fullilove v. Klutznick is the case that created the successful litigation which challenged the anti-quota ruling; the verdict dictated that some modest quotas were perfectly constitutional (Brunner, Borgnia, Infoplease).The Court upheld a federal law requiring that 15% of funds for public works be set aside for qualified minority contractors. The funds for public works exemplifies a different

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Persuasive Essay CAS 138T arena but those are the standards we need to implement in terms of quotas in the realm of education (Brunner, Borgnia, Infoplease).

The evenly distributed integration along with its positive benefits such as making all people attentive to different cultures explains why the need for change is so crucial. Moreover, studies have shown the assimilation of people of different backgrounds also helps to create educational environments that improve basic learning and better equip students for an increasingly diverse society (Jost, Kennith, CQ Researcher Online) Race-conscious admissions policies also promote the integration archetype first realized in the Brown v. Board of Education case (Jost, Kennith, CQ Researcher Online). A University of Michigan study found additional benefits of increased diversity throughout institutions: diverse learning environments can enhance students' critical-thinking skills, augment their understanding and tolerance of different opinions and groups, increase their motivation and participation in civic activities and better prepare them for living in a diverse society (Jost, Kennith, CQ Researcher Online). Minorities who endorse affirmative action personally attest they have experienced positive effects with their self-confidence, satisfaction with college and leadership abilities. It is completely, totally, and utterly ridiculous for the college administrators and Supreme Court officials to not strictly enforce the regulations made by law makers that came before them. Those who implemented affirmative action stated that the justification for affirmative action is that it helps to compensate for past discrimination, persecution or exploitation by the ruling class of a

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Persuasive Essay CAS 138T culture, and to address existing discrimination (Curry, George, Credoreference). All people regardless of their different backgrounds should care about the previous quote. It is saying that for the centuries of oppressions, and hardships the minority community endured affirmative action will serve as their much-deserved reparation. Even someone that is not directly affected by this issue should have enough decency to show respect and act as though they care about those involved. Once the previously oppressed individuals feel like they have gained sufficient reparations the society can truly be a better, happier place.

Thus the United States needs a revamped addition to the current affirmative action statures. Executive Order 11246 currently states that affirmative action requires employers and school officials to accept all individuals, without regard to their race, color, religion, sex or national origin (Brunner, Borgnia, Infoplease).This is something that sounds good if and only if it is properly enforced, which it isnt. Therefore the Supreme Court should enforce the Executive 11246 order by implementing a quota system. These quotas would include specifying the percentages of each ethnic group. A broad example can be seen as rationing 25% to the African Americans, 25% to the Caucasians, 25% to the Asians, and 25% to the Hispanics. A willing Supreme Court will have to take the top-down approach in order to administer my refurbished law. The top-down approach means that they would create and pass the law from the top of administration (courts) and it would be implemented all the way down the entire system. The law shall dictate the logistics universities use to develop quota rules and regulations. Consequently, all schools will take in account more than just an applicants high school grade point average and test scores. The school officials will include the productive activities the applicants participate in

Porche Maloney
Persuasive Essay CAS 138T outside the classroom as well. This way it is guaranteed that minority representation will occur by taking inconsideration that the common legend is that specific minority groups (African Americans) score lower on standardized. Therefore if more than test scores are taken in to consideration more minority groups (African Americans) would be accepted into more accredited universities. This new stature can be enforced in a number of ways. The federal government should implement a way of monitoring the applicant intake of each university and placing penalties on unequal opportunity educators. These tactics do not require any additional amounts of work for universities; my recommended change is that more attention be paid to the well-rounded unrepresented person as opposed to the heavily represented one.

From an underrepresented minority student perspective this plan is very practical. Generally speaking there have been numerous instances that I have cited above alone where activists have stated that increased integration is a good solution to the diversity deficiency issue. The minority student body of the University of California, Berkeley clearly agreed with the idea of increasing diversity in colleges, hence the photo below:

Courtesy of: Jim Wilson/The New York Times

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Persuasive Essay CAS 138T The work of these young activists can be considered to have swayed Justice Sandra Day OConnor. She along with the remaining members of the Supreme Court also ruled, 5 to 4, that colleges could consider race and ethnicity as part of a case-by-case assessment of individuals, taking all factors into consideration (Gingrich, Drew, USA Today). Another University interested in increasing the minority numbers within the education field is the University of Texas. Their school uses a "Top 10 Percent" plan: a program that allows the top 10% of their high school students to automatically be admitted to the state university of their choice (Gingrich, Drew USA Today). The University of Texas put forth these requirements because most of the state's public high schools are segregated by race and ethnicity, therefore it would boost racial diversity at their university. These examples can serve as both credible sources and provide inspiration to all people who are passionate about the reworking of affirmative actions current status. Conclusively the original affirmative action decree gives people from all walks of life the equal opportunity of being incorporated in the United States secondary education system. However in recent days it seems as though the efforts to enforce this policy have slacked off therefore I believe implementing quotas, monitoring the applicant intake of each university and placing penalties on unequal opportunity educator are efficient revamped methods to improve the current policy. There are many benefits that come into play with this new policy idea for both minorities and majorities. The studies cited above have shown that when an adequate amount of diversity occurs they are better equipped for an increasingly diverse society. Overall escalating

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Persuasive Essay CAS 138T the diversity in populations amongst colleges and universities is the key element that keeps both the affirmative action statures intact but also the much need positive discrimination present.

Citation Page Brunner, Borgnia. "Timeline of Affirmative Action Milestones." Infoplease. Infoplease, 2007. Web. 29 Mar. 2013 Curry, George. "Topic Page:." Affirmative Action. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. 1996, Feb. 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. Gingrich, Drew. "Supreme Court Weighs Quotas in Affirmative Action Case." USA Today. Gannett, 12 Oct. 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2013.

Jost, Kennith. "The CQ Researcher Online." CQ Researcher by CQ Press. CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, 21 Sept. 2001. Web. 01 Apr. 2013

Liptak, Adam. "Justices Take Up Race as a Factor In College Entry." The New York Times. The New York Times, 22 Feb. 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2013.

Prez-pea, Richard. "To Enroll More Minority Students, Colleges Work Around the Courts." The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 Apr. 2012. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.
Comment [AKH1]: Good, credible sources